Hi james,
Given his consistently reckless behavior over the past few years, one could be forgiven for thinking that Donald Trump actually wants to end up in prison. At every turn he chooses to flout the law, attack the courts, and incriminate himself. Whenever the wisest strategy is to remain silent, he opens his mouth and spews the first thing that comes to mind. The truth, of course, is not that he particularly yearns for incarceration, but rather that he has all the self-control of a rabid animal.
This inability to control himself was put on full display in a recent TV appearance during which he launched an extended attack on his former fixer Michael Cohen, calling him a “convicted lawyer” with “no credibility whatsoever.” The rather tepid smear attempt would be wholly unremarkable if not for one salient fact: it was a flagrant violation of his gag order. Judge Juan Merchan has banned Trump from attacking the witnesses in his criminal hush money trial and Michael Cohen is not just a witness, he’s the star witness.
In fact, the television segment aired shortly after Trump’s lawyers attended a show cause hearing during which they pulled out all of the stops in an effort to convince the judge that their client somehow hasn’t violated his gag order — a tall order since he seems incapable of not violating it at this point and has done so on at least eleven occasions. The hearing went about as poorly as expected with the judge at one point telling one of the MAGA attorneys that he was “losing all credibility with the court.”
Kick Jesse Watters off the air for targeting Trump’s jurors!
And while Trump’s attacks on people like Cohen are certainly tied to his pathological lack of restraint, they also have a specific strategic purpose. Every time that he goes after someone on TV or unleashes a tirade against them on Truth Social, he’s trying to cow them into submission. He has a massive megaphone and a horde of violent supporters hanging on his every word. Thrumming beneath the surface of his outbursts is the very real — and wholly understood by Trump — possibility that some particularly unstable member of the MAGA cult may decide to exact a pound of flesh on behalf of their god-king.
Not only is Trump turning up the heat on witnesses involved in his current cases, he’s sending a threatening message to any witnesses out there who might be considering coming forward. He’s hoping to make an example of his enemies. It’s a mafia approach and failure to treat it as such only encourages more of this behavior.
One need not be a legal scholar to recognize that Trump would already be in jail if he were anybody else. These gag order violations are cut-and-dry. The judge is understandably wary about taking any action that might supercharge the political atmosphere around this trial, but at a certain point (and we’ve reached that point) he must put his foot down. Trump is defying not only him, but the entire apparatus of the American justice system. If he’s not held accountable for his actions, the credibility of our courts will never recover.
Stay focused, stay energized.
Brian
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